Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign into law a bill that would no longer require a jury to vote unanimously to condemn an offender to death.
The bill, SB 450, was drafted last year in the wake of Nikolas Cruz receiving life in prison for killing 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018. A jury did not unanimously recommend the death penalty, allowing Cruz to serve 34 consecutive life sentences despite the majority of the victim’s families asking for his death.
Current Florida law requires unanimity among jurors before they can recommend a sentence of death. The bill, which passed the Senate last month before the House overwhelmingly approved it on Thursday, would lower that threshold to require just two-thirds of all 12 jurors, to recommend a death sentence….